Process of preparing absorbent cotton



\ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JENNIE E. PIERCE, OF LEWISTON, MAINE.

PROCESS OF PREPARING ABSORBENT COTTON.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 239,398, dated March 29,1881. Application filed January 18, 1881. (No specimen.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I JENNIE E. PIERCE, of Lewiston, in the county ofAndroscoggin and State of Maine, a citizen of the United States,

7 have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Process ofPreparing Absorbent Cotton; and I hereby declare that the following isafull, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enableothers skilled in the art to'which it appertains to make and use thesame.

Heretofore absorbent cotton has been prepared by rotting the raw cottonby the use of chloride of lime for the purpose of extracting the oilfrom the cotton. My invention differs from this by extracting the oilfrom the cotton, before it is bleached by the use of soda-ash andquicklime, as hereinafter described, there by saving great waste ofcotton and thereby making a great saving of chloride of lime andsal-soda, rendering the manufacture of the article much more economical,saving great expense, and simplifying the process.

To carry myinvention into effect I take ten pounds of raw cotton, breakand card it; then thoroughly wet it in warm water; take two pounds.soda-ash, seven ounces quicklime. Boil the soda-ash first until all isdissolved; then slack the lime in hot water and add it to the above;boil one-half an hour; let it stand six hours; then draw it from thesettlings; add water enough to cover the cotton; boil two and one-halfhours; take the cotton out of the liquid and-rinse it until the water isclear; then take two and one-half pounds of chloride of lime; dissolveit in ten ters Patent, is

quarts of warm water; let it stand twelve hours, or until clear; thendraw olf and add forty quarts of hot water; then put the cotton in thesolution, and let it stand one-half hour; stir and rinse until clear;then cover the cotton with a solution of Warm water mixed with one-thirdof pound sal-soda; let it stand ten minutes; then rinse it again untilthe water is clear; dry and card it, and itis ready for use.

I am aware of Letters Patent No. 227,481), issued May 11, 1880, toLucinda A. Biicknam, and I claim no title to any part of her invention,my invention being an improvement on her process, inasmuch as myinvention saves more than one-half of the expense of preparation,besides being a great saving in cotton,

as absorbent cotton prepared by my process,

is not rotted or wasted, while in her process the cotton is rotted andwasted.

What I claim and desire to secure by Let- Ihe method of preparing cottonas. an absorbent for surgical purposes, consisting in subjecting the rawcotton first to abath of quicklime and soda-ash dissolved in water, andboiling in this, then rinsing in clean water andimmersing in a solutionof chlorideoflinie, again rinsing, immersing in a solution of salsoda,rinsing, drying, and carding, substantially as set forth.

JENNIE E. PIERCE.

Witnesses:

E. P. GURNEY, 1 D. HALE.

